The Steak thread

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Mookie, I need your advise.

Had a 300 gr point steak today. I let it rest at room temperature for around an hour, it had 18°C, then used salt, black pepper and fresh garlic on it. I put it into the oven on a plate, at 130-140°C (its difficult to reach a precise temperaturwe with an ordinary household oven). A needle to measure the temperature was stuck into the heart of the meat.

However, after 7 minutes the steak's heart was at 36°C already, but still looking red as before, like fresh from the refrigerator. I switched off the oven to slow the temperature rise.

But the temperature climbed and climbed, and very fast, impossible to keep it at 35°C (the minimum mark is 50°C). I opened the door early, then took the meat out after 12 minutes - the temperature meanwhile had spiked to almost 45°C, but the meat on the outdside still looked and felt like raw meat, fresh from the refrigerator. I have bitten into it, and it had the exact same consitency asd any usual raw beef meat. I felt like that, and it looked like that, the only difference was that it was warm, considerably warmer than body temperature.

This sounds about right. When the meat comes out of the oven, it's going to look dry and darker red than it did before it went in, but it's still going to look a lot like uncooked meat.

I meanwhile had heated up a heavy cast iron pan to max heat, and when using olive oil, it smoked.

I wouldn't use olive oil as it has a low smoke point. It's preferable to use a vegetable oil like soybean oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil. Not sure what would be most common and cost effective over there for you.

After that, there was the juice in the alumium foil, the meat was done with a slightly rosy heart, well: it tasted okay, and was absolutely eatable, but - it was nothing special, nothing different, it did not make the smallest or the slightest difference to throwing it into the pan immediately and occasionally flipping sides and immediately serving it - the way I have done it for years. I would not like to do this effort again for this kind of absolutely mediocre result.

It made no difference at all, not in consistency, and not in taste. All it did was to triple the preparation time. The whole oven thing was totally in vain, and made no noticable difference at all.

Hmm. If I did a steak strictly in the pan, I would end up with something like this:



The very center is the color I'm looking for, but it's surrounded by a wide band of overdone meat.

The results I get when I do it my way usually look more like:

P.S. It makes no difference to use garlic before cooking it in the pan. When putting it into the pan, the garlic burns black within the first minute. No arome or taste was left, only salt and pepper survived. I used a smashed claw (quite a big one) on both sides before putting it into the oven.

I wouldn't use fresh garlic, as it burns very quickly and tastes bitter. I use garlic powder. You can omit this if you like.

[TarJak]

Best steak is grass-fed rib eye or sirloin. Don't over cook it and make sure your grill or pan is as hot as it can get before putting your meet on it. It should be a minimum of 3-4cm thick otherwise it's not worth eating

I almost never season it before cooking but put a little olive oil in the pan or on the grill first.

Don't flip your steak over until you start to see some colour coming up the side. Only turn it once. Never turn more than that.

Don't be afraid of feeling your meat. Best way to test if it's done is the finger test: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/the...eness_of_meat/



Always rest your meat for about 5-10 mins before eating. The meat will continue to cook gently during this time.

The accompaniments are as important as the steak. A fresh salad with fetta and balsamic with some slow cooked onions or sautee'd mushrooms are a perfect way to round it off. Also the wine you drink with it makes a big difference. Depending on your tastes a well rounded Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz does the job.

I never microwave or oven cook steak. Always cook it properly on your BBQ grill or pan.

[Skybird]

Will give it another go on Monday, when I'm back. Cheers!

[mookiemookie]

Sky, just for you I'm posting a visual walkthrough of how I cook a steak. My fiance was just accepted into dental hygiene school at the University of Texas, so I made a steak dinner to celebrate. Here's how I did it:

First we start out with our steaks. I picked up two 20 oz. New York Strip steaks at the butcher shop. Each one is about 1.5 to 2" thick. Yes, I'm serious about steak. Here they are sitting on the counter while I do prep on the rest of the meal:



I've set my oven to 275 degrees, and it's ready to go. I seasoned both sides of the meat with a creole seasoning that I like to put on everything. Here they are set over a foil lined, rimmed baking sheet (you can already see a bit of grease on the foil because I had used it to cook bacon for our baked potatoes...I figured no need to get a new piece of foil, just set the wire rack in and put the steaks on it). The probe thermometer is in and ready to go.



These were some really thick steaks, so they took a while to come up to temp. I don't recall exactly how long as I had gotten into the wine by this point. Could have been a half hour? I'm not sure. Here I've just pulled them out of the oven. They don't look very appealing at this point, but we'll soon fix that.



Into the pan they go for two minutes. Note that I'm not using a cast iron pan here as mine needs to be re-seasoned and I haven't gotten around to it yet, so I'm just using a regular stainless steel pan set over high heat. I used a bit of vegetable (soybean) oil and heated the pan until the oil started smoking a bit. I used a plate to weight the steaks down while they seared.



First side done, time to flip:



Here they are plated, tented loosely with foil and resting for 10 minutes:



How's that for a steak dinner? Strip steaks cooked medium rare, and since we're being decadent there's a dollop of thyme and sage butter on top. Accompanied by a loaded baked potato and some mushrooms.

[joegrundman]

that's proper food there mookie

respect

[Sailor Steve]

You know, I'm really starting to hate this thread.

Haven't had a steak in months.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

You know, I'm really starting to hate this thread.

Haven't had a steak in months.

You gotta look for the sales. I got those for $8.99/lb.

[Sailor Steve]

And I can eat a bowl of ramen for 25 cents.

It's okay, I'll have one in a week or so.

[razark]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

And I can eat a bowl of ramen for 25 cents.

You must have some very large bowls if it takes 25 cents to fill them with ramen.

[Skybird]

Wowh, Mookie, copied, saved and printed that illustrated guide. Thanks a lot! I will try it. Maybe I picked the wrong meat, and maybe it also was sliced too thin.

Again, thanks. Much appreciated!

[mookiemookie]

It could be. If your meat is thinly sliced, there's no real advantage to doing it my way. I wouldn't bother with it unless the meat's at least 1" thick.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by razark

You must have some very large bowls if it takes 25 cents to fill them with ramen.

Well, there are packets for 19 cents, but prices change from week to week.

[Skybird]

I just tried again, but with the rest of the meat I had, so it was probably too thin a slice, however, I experimented with the microwave to let it replace the oven part.

And it seems to work.

Point is you do not want the meat to turn grey or turn hot, right? So you need to be careful. Do not run the 600 or 850Watt level for several minutes. I used 450 Watts in two intervals of 20 seconds each, flipping sides between both phases. I would not go higher than 450 Watts, maybe even cut lower to 300 Watts. After that the meat looked like raw, still was as juicy as before, was red, but warm inside and outside, with around 35°C inside. No burnt spots on the surface, like you easily can get when thawing froozen chicken in the micro, for example.

It'S no revolution, but if you want to use an oven the way Mookie describes it, using the microwave carefully and at low radiation levels and for short times only maybe makes it a bit more comfortable a work in your kitchen. In mine, it does. Remember, the micro should just warm it up to the temperature Mookie recommends - you do not want to cook the steak in it.

After the 40 seconds in the micro, let it rest for 1-2 minutes.

I then used the heated pan as usual, and had to jump to the smoke detectors three minutes later, since I had forgotten to switch them off. The smoke in the kitchen can trigger them, since my appartement is small so the smoke can activate them even with all windows open.

[TarJak]

Saw Heston cooking steak tonight on the TV and some of his techniques are a bit different to mine but some are exactly the same:



I'll definitely be trying this method next time I cook my steaks.

[Skybird]

This is just to give an update on and confirm the use of microwave ovens.

In the past weeks I had the opportunity to work with very very nice filet steaks, when I cooked togetehr with freinds, got invited, and on a family birthday.

I know it must sound like a sacrileg for some, but using a microwave at very low Watts is a very practicable way to prepare the meat before it goes into the pan.

The trick is to use low energy only, and to slowly apporoach to the inner core tempeatrure of 31-33°C that you want. Run the micro in short-timed intervals, than use a thermometer to check temperature, and poke it always into the same hole, so that you do not perforate your precious meat. Use 250-300 Watts only.

It is possible warm up the meat, no matter how thick or how much it is, to the desired temperature, without the colour or the surface changing at all. You then have the effect that in earlier descriptions get acchieved by putting it into a waterbath, or into the oven. But it is less confusion in the kitchen, I dare say, to use the micro instead! Once you have the meat at the temp you wanted, switch the micro off for sure, and leave the meat alone and prepare your dinner and the pan.

When your preparations are done, salt the meat, and put it into the hotter-than-hell pan+some oil, 2 minutes each side, no stirring. Afterwards, wrap in alumium foil, and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.

I have done it three times now since my last posting, with 12 pieces of 1st class meat, and it became perfect, absolutely perfect, with different pans, different microwaves, in three different kitchens.

Using the microwave !carefully! absolutely is an option. Remember, low Watt, short intervals until you are there. Much easier than sous-vide, or oven.

I also recommend not to use one of the usual grid -filters (do not reliable catch oil splashes) or closed lids (turn the pan into a cooking pot with plenty of boiliung water inside, what is not wanted) to avoid squirts of oil turning your kitchen into a mess, but one of these pyrimd-formed lids with a hole on top. Humidity and steam can escape, but the oil stays inside. It also increases overall temperature. For using a pan, these items are perfect and save you a lot of cleaning work in the kitchen.